I was on Pinterest the other day, and I came across a post from the blog Little Minds at Work where Tara had cut out hands to help her students master the skill of addition. I thought that this was absolutely adorable and quite beneficial, so I decided to embark on making my own set of hands during Spring Break.
So, I first found a template of hands to print out. I used file folders to print on because I wanted the hands to be a sturdy as possible. Also, I had to reverse the image so the hand outline that I would cut on would be on the backside. Then, I had my work out out for me - 48 hands to first cut out, then laminate and then cut out the lamination, whew!!!
I had to try out a few in the beginning of this process to see how the end result would look like. One, extra step I took was to put velcro on each of the fingers so that the students would be able to accurately count each finger. This was quite a task, especially because the velcro was so difficult to take off the packaging :(. After each finger was securely placed on the paper, I hot glued the palm of each hand to secure them.
Now, I also decided to make addition and subtraction cards to use the Helping Hands with! Here is an example of the fingers being used to add 1+2.
It's hard to see the fingers due to the shine from the lamination. Below is an angled view and a back view to see how I put velcro on each finger. Please note that this project was very time consuming and I had to buy the colored paper, so I put out some of my own money.
The final project of all my Helping Hands completed! I'm very excited for the students to use them to reinforce addition as well as our subtraction unit coming up next month.
